Category: Luke

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Luke 1 before continuing on to the devotional below. 

We begin our journey into Luke and Acts, which will highlight a chapter or chapters at a time. We’ll be looking at a broader overview, connecting with themes that relate to emotional freedom.

Luke 1 tells of two angel encounters that announce the coming of Jesus. From these stories, we learn that if you ever encounter a real angel face to face you will first freak out, second experience extreme confusion, and third break into prophetic song. Or at least that is what happened to Zechariah and Mary.

Even more than their emotional reactions to the angel encounters (which I find refreshingly human and honest), I notice something bigger. Willingness. Sure, they kind of botched a really great angel greeting (I bet they thought of a thousand things they could have said to Gabriel after the fact…), but ultimately both Zechariah and Mary were willing to listen and participate in the unusual turn of events. Both of them step into a deeper place with God as they express deep humility and thankfulness for being chosen to participate in the coming of the Messiah.

Here’s your freedom for today: God has invited you to participate in his story. And this is not like one of those elementary school team-picking games in which you are dead last and God is stuck picking you. No, he knows exactly who you are and what your limitations are and he is drawing you in to play a role. Your role. God sees something in you that perhaps you’ve missed if life has knocked you down. Live today as that person he sees.

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Luke 2 before reading the devotional below. 

Even if you only go to church on Christmas and Easter, you’ve heard Luke 2. Jesus is born. You hear the songs about it every December in the mall. Manger, shepherds, angels, all that. Keep reading and Jesus’ entire early childhood is glossed over until his parents lose him at age 12. (That’s reassuring for all us parents whose children wander from time to time… Can you imagine you’ve been entrusted with the Son of God and you LOSE HIM??!! My parenting is suddenly looking so together…)

But if you look past the stories that we have heard a thousand times and place yourself in the era of Jesus’ coming and early life, there is a deep sense of awe and mystery. Imagine that God has revealed to you that there is a time coming when some pretty amazing things will happen. You can envision this future, but it’s fuzzy and part of you wonders if you have just made the whole thing up. But God keeps nudging and nudging and you keep praying and praying. And imagine that after a season of waiting things that God told you about begin to slowly unfold. Not all at once of course… Just one prophecy and one prayer at a time. And you start to realize that everything he’s told you up until this point is true… That is the sense of wonder and amazement that captures the emotional experiences of Mary, Joseph, Simeon and Anna.

Perhaps you are in a place where you used to have some hope, but now you wonder if it was all just wishful thinking. Maybe everything looks bad right now and God doesn’t seem to be opening any doors. That can be a tremendous place of discouragement and even depression and hopelessness. Here’s your freedom for today: God finishes what he starts. His timeline may be pretty different from yours, but he’s working. If he planted a dream in your heart, he will carry it through to completion because it was his plan to begin with. If there are pieces that you need to let go of, he’ll let you know along the way. But hold tight to any place of faith in your heart that is telling you to wait and then expect God to show up. He’s at work. Just wait and watch the unfolding with awe.

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Luke 3 before reading the devotional below.

In this time of waiting and fulfillment of prophecy (see yesterday’s post), some interesting people start showing up. John the Baptist is a fascinating prophetic voice, with a direct call of God on his life since before he was born. (Side note: when an angel shows up to announce your coming birth to your parents, you can take that as a strong sign that God is going to use you to say some pretty unique stuff…)

Zoom in on verses 7-14 for a minute. John is letting everyone know that all the things that keep them feeling safe and cozy actually mean nothing. Have you ever hit that moment where you realize that all the safety and control you thought you had was all just an illusion to begin with? (Me too.) The crowd asks the next logical question: “What do we do??!”

I find John’s answer fascinating: “If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry.” There are a few other examples but it all comes down to one simple idea: share. Turns out we are all just a bunch of toddlers and all God wants is for us to just share already. And you know, it really is the same thing I say to my kids. Just share. That’s all I really want.

Then the counselor in me says, “What stops us from sharing?” Ultimately nobody feels great when they are greedy and fighting for their own interests. So why do we find ourselves struggling so much with the basic idea that sharing is the right way to go? I think of it like a contagious disease. Every time someone does not share with you, a bit of your heart gets just a tiny bit hardened. Then more and more and you start passing it on and in the end humanity is ruined by greed. Not to mention all the other kinds of harm that can come into your life that brings about the same thing.  We learn to protect ourselves, and we find security and control in things that provide neither.

Here’s your freedom for today: hard hearts can always melt back into shape. Think of it like a candle — it may become misshapen over time, but throw it back into a pot and all the wax becomes moldable again. It’s not too late for you to throw bits of your heart back into the Holy Spirit’s fire. We all have those broken places. Perhaps if we find one way to share with others today we’ll melt just a little tiny bit.

 

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Luke 4 before reading the devotional below. 

I typed the word “temptation” into BibleGateway.com once. Try it. Not sure about you, but I was really surprised to see that temptation is something the Bible says we will all face. Maybe that’s not such a shocking thought to you, but growing up as a Christian somewhere along the way I internalized the idea that being tempted is basically already well on your way to sinning. You failed because you even had the tempting thought cross your mind. But that’s not what the Bible says.

When you read all the verses about temptation in a row, you realize that Satan is always at work in doing the tempting. It is an action on his part. If Jesus was tempted, yet didn’t sin, then obviously being tempted is not a sin. In our passage today, Jesus resisted Satan’s efforts and used Scripture to defeat him. But I don’t think it would be called a “temptation” if there wasn’t some emotional part of Jesus that kind of wanted it. Satan offered Jesus things he could actually have. His tricks told the truth — you can turn this stone into bread if you want to, you can have this earthly kingdom that belongs to me, you can jump off this cliff and have angels come save you immediately! All of these were totally options for Jesus. And wouldn’t that have been easier.

Here’s where Satan has figured out a way to gamble on you and double his money: tempt you and then blame you for being tempted. You feel guilty without even falling for his temptation! And he laughs all the way to the bank. Here’s your freedom for today: temptation happens to all of us. It’s not your fault, and you didn’t do anything wrong. If you were tempted but you didn’t give in, don’t let Satan fool you into feeling guilty anyway. Instead, notice what you did to follow God’s path in the midst of a lure in a different direction. Jesus is celebrating that victory, why shouldn’t you?

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Luke 5 before reading the devotional below. 

“If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.” This jaded statement is sadly accurate in our world full of bait-and-switch trickery and high pressure sales tactics. “But wait! There’s more! Only 17 easy payments of $29.95! Plus a FREE gift worth $8,000,000 — yours for only $50 more!” And by the time your brand new electric toothbrush with mood-detecting bristles shows up in the mailbox, you start to wonder what you were thinking.

Now rewind to a very distant era with no electricity and very few resources, all of which take tremendous physical effort to obtain. You’re a fisherman, which means you smell awful and probably swear a lot. You work at night, and sometimes you get zero profit from your efforts. You’re exhausted and frustrated, cleaning out your nets before calling it quits for the day. Along comes this guy who is new to the scene. He seems different enough and rumors have circulated enough that you immediately call him “Master.” He tells you to go back out there and try to catch some more fish. You do it, but not without complaining first and threatening an “I told you so” that will surely come after he sees there are no fish to be caught. Turns out his instructions give you a week’s worth of fish in five minutes, and he just has a little smirk on his face as your boat starts sinking from fish overload.

What would you do next? Say thank you? Be amazed? In Luke 5:8, Peter basically freaks out and pushes Jesus away. He literally tells Jesus to leave. Why? Because Peter is confronted by his own sin. He knows he doesn’t deserve what Jesus just gave him. It’s too good to be true.

I have talked to so many people who have the exact same reaction to Jesus. “He forgives me? No way, with what I’ve done that can’t be true. Maybe for other people, but not me.” Others react this way when God starts to pour good gifts into their lives. “Thanks God… but what do you want? What am I going to have to give up now that you gave me this? When is the other shoe going to drop?”

Here’s your freedom for today: God loves being extremely generous. He likes watching you struggle to manage the piles of good gifts he’s pouring into your life. Sometimes you can’t keep up with the load of blessing he’s dumping on you. You have two choices: push Jesus away or follow him. Literally walk away from everything that feels secure and safe to chase after some guy who nearly sank your boat. Live life with curiosity as you chase after Jesus — what’s he going to do next??